Health ministry prepares for typhoid outbreak

Ministry of Health and Child Welfare is engaging the World Health Organisation to ensure that the country has adequate supplies of medication in case of a major typhoid outbreak.

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Since the deadly typhoid disease was detected in Mabvuku about two weeks ago 81 people have tested positive of the disease while five have succumbed to the disease as of Friday.

Though the situation looks gloomy Deputy Minister of Health and Child Welfare Dr Douglas Mombeshora says so far the country has enough antibiotics and plans are underway to secure more drugs for the deadly disease that has hit the eastern suburb of Mabvuku in Harare.

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Dr Mombeshora added thatÂ 20 patients are still detained at Beatrice Road Infectious hospital while sporadic cases of the disease are being reported inÂ other areas of Mabvuku-Tafara such as Shashe street, 3km away from Nyamaturi street, the new stands area in Mabvuku as well as Tafara primary school.

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It has also been revealed that a number of school children from Simudzai PrimaryÂ have been affected.Â This was established during an interview with one of the teachers at the school who declined to be named.Â

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Residents suspect that the typhoid outbreak could have been a result of the poor quality of water that is being consumed in the suburb although it has been receiving consistent water supplies from the City of Harare since the 16th of February after most of them had been fetching water from unprotected wells and boreholes.

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However Dr Mombeshora noted that there is a need to ascertain whether the outbreak as it has been established that a significant number of residents are selling raw fish, pork and chicken cutlets at different shopping centers under unhygienic conditions such as open spaces that are sometimes near garbage dumps where house flies are resident.

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Typhoid is a waterborne disease rampant in areas where there is no clean drinking water and in some cases the salmonella bacteria is spread by food handlers when preparing food especially at public gatherings.

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Unlike cholera which can easily be identified, typhoid presents itself in a number of symptoms such as dizziness, vomiting, coughing, fever, diarrhea, respiratory infections and headaches.